Restless Night
by Forever Free Evergreen
Summary: Set between chapters 2 & 3 of Tales of the White Knight: Awakenings


**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own White Knight Chronicles just the words below_

_I figured, seeing as I missed out the camp scene in my fic, I might as well put this up as a separate piece. Hope you like._

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He was used to sleeping on rough ground, spending ten years as a travelling Spellcaster's apprentice coupled with six in the Balandor army, where you were considered lucky to get half a decent nights rest before the Farians attacked again, would do that to a person. Yet, despite all that, Alastor was finding it very hard to get some much needed rest.

With the knowledge of where they were heading next, he was going to need all the strength he could get, yet some part of him was denying him his sleep. It could not have been because of the suspicious old Spellcaster snoring softly in the opposite corner of the tent as he had been used to sleeping next to a warg whose snoring imitated something between a rockslide and a thunder storm.

Unable to come up with a suitable reason as to why he was to remain awake, the blue haired Spellcaster rose from his makeshift cot and stumbled outside to see if he could pass a little time talking to Leonard before taking his shift for watch duty. He was therefore surprised when he stepped out of the tent to see that the ponytailed youth was nowhere to be seen.

'Knight-boy?' He called out quietly hoping that the lad had just gone off to answer a call of nature only to receive no reply other than the crackling of the fire.

Taking a very long shot, Alastor walked over towards the tent where the only female member of their group was residing and gently tapped the canvas wall. 'Hey, Short-stuff, anyone in there with you?'

Still nothing. Either Yulie was a sound sleeper or she had wandered off herself, possibly after Leonard to see what he was up to.

Crashing down on a nearby log, the young Spellcaster grumbled to himself about wandering youths as he tried to figure out where said youths had disappeared off to. Given that they had just made it out of the Nordia tunnels after a long day of working their way through its labyrinth of tunnels, coupled with battling monsters, Magi infantry and even the Black Knight himself, they were all pretty much beat despite the two youths rise in spirits when they felt the rays of the setting sun across their bodies.

Leonard was actually rather eager to set camp and had even had suggested it before Eldore could get the words out himself and had even offered to take the first shift despite having to be forced awake to take his the night before. It was almost as if the youth was expecting something, or was it possibly someone?

Alastor nearly palmed his face when he realised that the boy-knight was probably expecting a bigelow message from Princess Cisna and, for reasons probably considered more than friendly, had gone off somewhere to receive the message privately.

'Short-stuff's not going to like that' He muttered assuming the lavender haired girl had followed after her friend.

When he had first met Yulie in Parma village, Alastor could not help but noticed how the girl was dressed. Kitted out in a yellow and brown tunic, a short green skirt that covered half her thighs allowing all to see the hot pants she wore underneath and the knee high brown leather boots, Yulie probably had the heads of all the males in Parma in her direction whenever she passed by. It was a pity her temper and personality deterred anyone from the thought of asking her out.

It was not until in Balandor castle when he saw Leonard was somewhat besotted with the Princess and Yulie's jubilant mood nosedive, did Alastor piece together why she was dressed like that. He was unable to hold in the chuckle upon realising this and had caught Yulie's attention. Looking back on that moment, Alastor hoped that Yulie had taken his advice to heart otherwise she was about to get a rather rude awakening.

It was another five or so minutes before either Yulie or Leonard showed up again. Turning his head in the direction of the incoming footfalls, Alastor nearly choked on his own breath when he saw Yulie. The girl who was once lively spirited and unafraid to speak her mind, was now looking defeated and very disheartened.

Seeing Yulie like that, Alastor could not help but feel sorry for her. True they were not exactly the best of friends, given how some of his comments or remarks seemed to flare her temper, but when it came down to it, they both kept an eye out for one another knowing that they were the only ones who did not truly have a reason or purpose for joining Leonard on his quest other than the fact that he was their friend, at least in her case he was still trying to figure out why he was tagging along.

'I did try to warn you' Alastor said softly when the girl had gotten closer.

Yulie just ignored the Spellcaster, wanting to just get back to her cot and curling into a ball under the blankets. She actually had taken the Spellcaster's advice but at the same time clutched hold of a thread of possibility that maybe, just maybe, the Princess would not have any feelings for Leonard allowing her to step in and help comfort her best friend before hinting a little more obvious than usual that she had feelings for him.

Unfortunately, her hopes and dreams were dashed when she witnessed the two of them at the pond. The looks in their eyes as they danced and gazed at one another told Yulie everything she did not want to know and broke her heart. As if to add insult to injury, Yulie slowly made her way back to the camp only to come across the last person she wanted to see at this moment in time.

It was not that she did not like him. Yulie could tell that, despite his permanent frown and gruff words, Alastor cared about those he worked and travelled with and given that she had been saved several times by him proved as much. Intrigued by the Spellcaster, Yulie gathered that Alastor had a secret that he preferred no one knew about and therefore made sure that nobody got close enough to find out. It was possible that he was who she proclaimed him of being earlier on but was interupted before finding out. If she was not so disheartened, she would have taken this chance to pry it out of him right now.

'Oy, Short-stuff'

Yulie stopped in her tracks at the nickname. If there was one thing she detested, it was being called names that insinuated that she was small. True, no one called her any names like that for a while, but that was because the last person to call her something like that was knocked flat on their back by a solid right hook.

'I'm not in the mood for this, _Magician-boy_' She muttered looking back to glare at the Spellcaster.

'Not even another magic lesson?' Alastor queried knowing that the girl wanted to learn magic to help out more than providing long range backup with her skill in archery.

'Whatever happened to the thousand guilder a lesson?' Yulie countered trying not to sound too curious about the sudden change of heart.

'I'm in a giving mood tonight' Came the reply causing Yulie to scoff.

'Don't you mean you just wanted a reason to get me away?' She inquired smiling triumphantly when she saw him balk at being found out. 'It doesn't hurt to smile from time to time, you know'

'After what I've been through…' Alastor stopped mid-sentence and instead summoned Yulie's quiver from her tent with a flick of his hand.

Yulie watched in amazement as Alastor then pulled out four arrows from the floating quiver and, holding them in one hand, made each of the arrow heads channel a separate element.

'This is going to be a bit more difficult to master than the healing spell' Alastor explained as he planted the arrows one by one into the ground so that they were pointing towards the night sky. 'In general, it's the same as channelling a healing spell from one person to another. The only difference is trying not to put _too much_ mana into it otherwise it'll just blow up in your face'

Yulie shuddered as she imagined what it would be like to experience something like that. Ridding her mind of such thoughts, the lavender haired youth plucked an arrow from her quiver before looking questioningly at Alastor for how to proceed.

'Just imagine what the properties of the element are in your head whilst channelling mana into the arrow' Alastor explained. 'If your willpower is strong enough, your mana will pick up on your trail of thought and convert into the appropriate element'

'Is that how all spells work?' Yulie asked curiously. 'Just imagine it and it will form'

'Not exactly' Alastor chuckled. 'In the old days, a Spellcaster had to literally voice the name of the spell as well as think it in order to cast it. It was a while before it was discovered that you could just think of the spell in your head to have the same effect. But it still takes time to master the more advanced spells all the same'

'Find that out the hard way?' Yulie could not resist asking.

'Didn't realise until I was ten' Alastor confessed unable to hide his grin as he remembered that day. 'And I had already been with my master for about five years yet she never told me'

Yulie's smile faltered slightly when she realised the Alastor had probably been an orphan or abandoned by his slip of the tongue. It did not stop her from smiling when she saw that he was sporting a smile of his own for once.

'Anyway' Alastor said when he realised they were side tracking. 'Seeing that we're going into the desert tomorrow, start off by trying to charge an arrow with ice elemental energy'

Yulie nodded at his instructions before focusing on the arrow in her hand. Thinking along the lines of frozen lakes and icicles hanging from branches of trees, as well as muttering quietly under her breath, she gasped in surprise when she felt her hand go cold. Jerking the appendage towards her, she vaguely noted that the entire arrow was now solid ice before shattering upon hitting the ground.

'That would have made a nice ornament' Alastor commented receiving a glare from the girl as she tried to thaw her numb hand.

'What's going on over here?'

Both Alastor and Yulie turned their heads simultaneously at the sound of the approaching voice to see Leonard walking towards them looking quite cheerful if the smile on his face was anything to go by.

'Well look who finally decides to return' Alastor said in mock surprise. 'Care to tell us where you wandered off to without word or warning?'

'Just scouting the area' Leonard replied evasively as he passed them and headed into the tent.

'Hope he gave the Princess our greetings whilst _scouting the area' _Yulie muttered before picking up another arrow and focusing on channelling the appropriate amount of mana into it this time whilst Alastor remained quiet as he watched her try again and again to pull off the ice arrow spell.

A little under two hours later, Yulie was triumphantly looking down at the four arrows sticking into the ground next to Alastor's. Each arrow head charged with a different element.

'You are just full of surprises' Alastor commented shaking his head in disbelief. He had been expecting her to only master one of the four not all of them in one night.

Yulie grinned before yawning widely, the past few hours had taken a lot out of her and her eyelids were already beginning to droop. Seeing this, Alastor suggested she went to bed before she fell asleep where she was. Taking his advice, Yulie made her way towards her tent but not without taking care of one last detail.

'Hey, Alastor?' She called out to the Spellcaster and waiting until he grunted an acknowledgement before kicking the log he was on making him collapse on his back at her feet. 'Don't ever call me "Short-stuff" again, got it'

From where he lay, Alastor stared incredulously up at Yulie who just smirked at him before heading off towards her tent, definitely in better spirits than she had been earlier.

'Pleasant dreams, Yulie' He said to her retreating back unaware that she had paused a second upon hearing him say her name for the first time.

Stretching as best he could whilst still flat on his back, Alastor found himself to be rather comfy and would not have minded staying like this for the rest of the night had Eldore not suddenly decided to step out of his tent.

'Not the best of places to be when on watch, isn't it?' He remarked as he sat down on the log beside the fallen Spellcaster.

'I dunno, good view of the stars from here' Alastor replied before springing back onto the log he was sitting on moments before.

'Why don't you get some rest and let me take the next watch, lad' Eldore suggested gesturing towards the eight arrows that were still glowing with elemental energy. 'You've done enough for one night'

'I only did that so that she wouldn't slow us down tomorrow' Alastor grunted before taking the elderly Spellcaster's advice.

A bemused smile played across Eldore's face as he watched his fellow Spellcaster slip into his tent. He did not believe a word he had said just now. Neither did the person eavesdropping from the flap of the other tent.

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_Review if possible & 'til next time_

_Watch this space & peace out!_


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